More Chocolate and Peanut Butter

I have always had a fondness obsession with chocolate and peanut butter combos.  But my dear friend Pinterest seems to have taken full advantage of that and taunted me with dozens of mouth-watering and tempting recipes.
With the logic that I'm not getting any skinnier (my favorite pregnancy excuse), I gave in and made these perfect chocolate-peanut butter-pretzel bars (SERIOUSLY?!?).  I can tell you most definitely that these things are delicious, although my scale is probably cursing me right now.  I made them following the recipe below, but if you want to save some time/effort, you could just substitute the brownie recipe for one of the boxes (I prefer the Ghiradelli mix) and it would probably be just as delicious.

in all my eating, I must have forgotten to take a picture of the wonderfulness,
so this is courtesy of Pinterest

Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Pretzel Bars

• 1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
• 1 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 3 tbsp. cocoa powder
• 2/3 cup chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 1/2 cup crushed pretzels
• 6 tbsp. melted butter

1.  Preheat oven to 350.  Grease and flour 8x8 baking dish.

2.  Combine melted butter and pretzels crumbs in bowl.  Mix until well coated.  Press into baking dish to make crust.

3.  In bowl of electric mixer, beat butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add in eggs one at time.  Then add vanilla.  With mixer on medium speed, add flour, salt, and cocoa powder until well mixed.  Fold in chocolate chips.  Pour brownie mix over pretzel crust.  Set pan on baking sheet and bake for 25-30 minutes.

4.  When there's about 3 minutes left for the brownies, melt peanut butter in medium bowl in microwave (in 30 second intervals).  Once melted, stir in powdered sugar.  Pour over brownies and spread evenly.

5.  Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.